Following are summaries of recent or current cases litigated by Slack & Davis attorneys. In some cases, details of the case and recovery amounts are confidential, as required by the settlement agreement. Please be aware that the results obtained depend on the facts and circumstances of each case. Often, recoveries are limited to the amount of available insurance.

One of our clients underwent a routine hysterectomy, but the operating room nurses failed to conduct an instrument check. As shown in the x-ray to the right, they left a surgical instrument, a 6.2-inch clamp, in her abdomen after surgery, resulting in excruciating pain and injury to surrounding tissue. Once the error and subsequent damage was discovered, our client had to undergo two additional surgeries to repair the damage caused by the clamp.

Another of our clients who was obese was advised by her physician to have gall bladder surgery. She went to see the surgeon, who also advised her to have gastric bypass surgery in conjunction with the gall bladder surgery. The surgeon had never done a gastric bypass operation before, although he insisted he had done many and was competent in the procedure. Not only did he do a surgical procedure that didn't conform to any current standards for gastric bypass surgery, he left our client with about 150 centimeters of absorptive small intestine and only 32 centimeters of common channel. As a result, our client lost 173 pounds over 10 months, suffered severe malnutrition and liver failure. In short: she almost starved to death due to the physician's failure to reconnect her small bowel correctly. She lapsed into a coma and had to have corrective surgery. At first, she was placed on a liver transplant list, but her condition stabilized somewhat. She remains at substantial risk of future liver deterioration.

A healthy, active, 79-year-old woman went in for emergency surgey to relieve a small bowel obstruction. Because she had just eaten, she required either the insertion of a nasogastric tube or rapid-sequence induction to prevent regurgitation during anesthesia. The tube was never inserted, and the anesthesiologist never instructed the nurse to apply appropriate pressure to the neck to accomplish rapid-sequence induction. As a result, our client aspirated vomitus into her lungs, suffering irreparable damage. After enduring acute respiratory stress for several days, our client died from a heart attack.

A two-year-old girl was taken to a hospital with injuries, one of them a basilar skull fracture which the medical staff failed to recognize. The injury allowed bacteria to cross the blood-brain barrier and the child developed meningitis. The delay in diagnosing the meningitis cause the child to suffer permanent hearing loss as a result of the infection.

During neck surgery, an operating physician tore a hole in our client's esophagus. The tear was not even discovered until a third surgery. The patient was left with a permanent loss of range of motion and a large scar.

If you have questions about medical treatment that may have caused serious injuries to you or a loved one, please contact our office.